Software-based video games of varying sophistication are, of course, well known in the home entertainment industry. Within this general field, there exists games which are directed toward sports, such as, for instance, baseball, football and soccer, among others, as well as other types of interactive games (police/criminal chase games, etc.). In order to achieve as much reality as possible, the software for sports games, for instance, will use performance data, typically actual statistics for active or retired players, to produce a realistic game situation. Examples of such a software-controlled sports video game for baseball include Extra Innings, Super Bases Loaded and BaseWars for Nintendo systems (the software produced by Sony Imagesoft, Jaleco and Ultragames, respectively), as well as R.B.I. Baseball 3 for the Sega Genesis system (the software produced by Tegen). There are other software controlled video games for baseball as well as many other sports. The software necessary to control a game using performance data is thus well known.
In addition, it is known in such systems to have sufficient data in memory concerning individual players (e.g. the baseball players used in the game) that the that the players (users) of the video game can select a lineup of their choosing from a list of players. However, the selection which is available with current games is often quite limited relative to the large number of players for whom performance data has in fact been accumulated.
In an unrelated line of development, sports trading cards are well known, particularly in such sports as baseball and football, but also in other sports as well, and occasionally in some other fields, i.e. the so-called "famous criminals" cards. Such trading cards typically have a large photograph of the player on one side and performance statistics on the other side. Such cards are used only for collecting, sale and trading, however.